Training Material Evaluations

As many technical communicators are expanding their skills into the area of instructional design, they may be interested in receiving expert evaluation and review of either classroom or e-Learning courses. The IDL SIG offers two opportunities for SIG members to have their courseware evaluated: a Conference Evaluation Workshop and Virtual Training Evaluation Workshop.

Virtual Training Evaluation Workshop

We are now offering a free training evaluation opportunity online. (Starts again in September after the summer break.) You will have the chance to work with one of our SIG’s IDL experts to have your training materials evaluated and receive both written and personal feedback. We’ll evaluate finished courses, drafts, and storyboards for both classroom and e-Learning courses.

Process/Requirements

Each month we will match evaluation requests with evaluators. To participate in the session, you must submit a completed Evaluation Submission Form by the 15th of the month to evaluations@stcidlsig.org. At that time, we will review the submissions and match you with an evaluator who will contact you to coordinate sharing the materials for evaluation.

The evaluator will spend up to two hours reviewing your content using our IDL evaluation form to check for core instructional design components. Once your evaluator has finished, the two of you will have a conversation to discuss the evaluation feedback. Evaluations are expected to be completed within a month.

Important notes

• You must be an IDL SIG member to participate.
• You can submit an evaluation request one time per year.
• You must coordinate and pay for any costs incurred, such as phone calls, web tools, or shipping of materials.
• Depending on course size, the evaluation might not be a comprehensive evaluation of your entire course.

Evaluators

We maintain a database of evaluators to cycle through each month, and evaluators are asked to volunteer approximately 4-5 hours several times a year. If you’d like to be an evaluator, please submit an Evaluator Application to evaluations@stcidlsig.org.

Evaluators will use the same Evaluation Feedback Form when evaluating a submission.

Conference Training Evaluation Workshop

Each year the IDL SIG offers a training evaluation workshop at the annual STC Summit (conference). During this workshop, participants receive both written and verbal comments on their pre-submitted materials. The comments aim to provide strengths and opportunities for improvement. These comments cover all aspects of instructional design; however, participants can ask for comments to focus on specific areas of their materials.

Participants pre-submit materials using an application form that gives the areas of review and asks for information on audience, purpose, etc. Participants then meet with the reviewer face-to-face for 30 minutes during the session to receive feedback.

To participate in this workshop during the 2012 Summit in Chicago-Rosemont, send an email to evaluations@stcidlsig.org.